Ante Meridiem
by Dr. Shelly McCoy
Summary: Peter was always getting himself into trouble. Charlotte was young, beautiful, and proper. Their lives will change forever in the hands of a young vampyre in search for power. Unexpected friendships and romances will ensue in this sudden change of events.
1. Chapter One: The Boy

**Ante Meridiem**

_By Dr. Shelly McCoy_

Genre: Romance, Drama

Characters: Peter and Charlotte

Rating: T

Author's Note: I have no idea what Peter or Charlotte's last names are, so I made them up. =)

* * *

Chapter One – The Boy

..

It was March 28, 1879. Austin, Texas. Saturday. 3:17AM. A beautiful, chilly night.

Perfect.

Peter DeForest and his two best friends, Ricky Donovan and Luke Simmons, ran down Koenig Lane towards the large farm that's owned by the church. They have numerous animals ranging from cows to goats to chickens to a few others. Whatever the animal produces is sent to a factory to be processed. Afterwards, the products are distributed to local general stores around the town.

The farm itself was fairly large. There were several pens in the back of the church which housed the animals separately and extended to the left side of the building. To the right of the church were the chicken coups and tool sheds. Only elected members of the church were allowed to directly handle the animals, but anyone, with permission, could volunteer to help clean the pens and gather the milk and eggs and whatever else there was to harvest.

The boys were holding hand saws and large hedge shears, grinning mischievously.

They reached the church within minutes, feeling slightly out of breath. They listened for a minute, making sure nobody heard them wandering around the building.

All was silent save for the random noises made by the animals.

"Over here." Ricky pointed near the centre of the pen where the cow half and the goat half meet. This is where they were starting.

"Okay. Y'all know what your jobs are?" Peter and Luke nodded. "Good. Let's go."

Luke broke off and headed towards the right where the chickens were and Peter went towards the pigs on the left. Peter looked back to see that Ricky had already started using the saw to cut through the post.

He admired Ricky's boldness and loved the schemes he came up with. It made living in Austin much less boring.

Peter got to the pig pen and started cutting away at the barbed wires. It was difficult cutting through them seeing as the shears weren't meant to cut through metal, but after a few tries he succeeded.

The space between each post wasn't large enough for the animals to fit through if the barbed wires were gone, so a few posts had to be removed. As he was sawing, he stopped periodically to hear if anyone was coming, but he only heard Luke and Ricky sawing and cutting away.

He sawed away until he cut through more than half-way into the post. Putting the saw down, Peter stood and kicked at the post, hearing the wood crack. It only moved a few inches, if that.

_This is tough wood._

Peter huffed and put his hands near the top of the post and pushed hard until…

"Shit!"

He quickly moved away from the post and gripped his wrist as he squinted in the dark to look at the cut on his hand. He could feel the hot blood pooling in his palm as his two friends raced to his side.

"What happened?" Luke asked.

"My hand slipped and hit a barb." Peter winced as Ricky grabbed his hand to look at it. "Don't touch it!" Peter hissed loudly.

"Don't be such a damn baby. You'll be—"

The three boys looked up as the lights of the church came on. Before they could even flinch the back door swung open.

"Who's out there?!" The pastor's booming voice rang across the field. The farm was a huge deal to this town. Vandalizing any part of it, no matter how small the damage, would get you into serious trouble.

"Shit… run!"

Peter, Luke, and Ricky ran out of there as fast as they could.

Peter was the slowest because he was holding his hand up to his chest so the blood wouldn't drop to the ground and create a trail. Also, the pressure in his hand as he ran made it hurt more and holding it against his chest was less painful than letting it dangle at his side.

They could all hear the pastor shouting at them, but when Luke looked back he saw that the three of them weren't being chased. The boys had run far enough away that the pastor didn't bother chasing them.

The boys slowed down until they were walking and headed towards Peter's house so he could bandage his hand.

Luke started laughing.

"That was awesome!"

Regardless of what happened to Peter's hand, he nodded and laughed. So did Ricky.

"That old pastor will never know it was us."

"How long do you think it'll take for them to fix the fences?"

"Who cares?"

"Uh… guys?"

Luke and Ricky looked over to Peter, who had begun to look pale. Even in the dim light of the moon, they could see the glistening red liquid now pooling over Peter's hand and splashing onto the ground.

Peter started swaying.

Ricky and Luke flanked Peter and grabbed his arms, holding him up. They rushed to Peter's house, which was only a few minutes away now, while half-walking, half-dragging him. They didn't realize how deep the cut had been.

"Shit, Peter. How hard did your hand hit the barb? I've been pricked a few times and it's never been this bad."

"I didn't… prick it…" Peter's voice sounded weak and the other two boys were starting to get worried. They looked down and saw that Peter's hand was completely red.

Luke took off the jacket he was wearing and pressed it into Peter's palm, causing him to wince in pain, just as they got to the house. Ricky ran inside, but kept quiet as to not wake Peter's mother (His father had died in the war), as Luke walked Peter in and sat him on the couch. Ricky same back seconds later with a first aid kit he got from the bathroom. They opened the box and stared at it for a second before staring at each other.

"Should we stitch it first?"

"Hell if I know. Do you even know how to stitch a person?"

Luke shook his head then took out a roll of gauze. "Let's just wrap it. It'll be fine." He paused. "Wait. We should clean this…"

Ricky went to the kitchen and got two towels and brought them back. Luke grabbed the alcohol bottle and soaked half of one of the towels before pressing it onto Peter's wound.

Ricky quickly covered Peter's mouth after Peter let out a cry of pain.

"Son of a bitch!" Peter muffled into Ricky's hand.

"I didn't know you're mother was a bitch."

With his other hand, Peter reached over and punched Ricky in the jaw, splitting his lip. "Fuck you!"

"Boys!"

Peter, Luke, and Ricky all froze and slowly looked towards the stairs where Peter's mother had appeared. She looked annoyed, but tired.

"It's the middle of the night. What are you still doing up?"

"Sorry, Mrs. DeForest." – "Sorry, mom." The boys said together.

Peter's mother nodded sleepily. She had turned on the hallway light upstairs and it wasn't enough to light up the living room, so she didn't see what they were doing. "Please get some sleep. Especially you, Peter, we have Church at 9."

The three of them nodded and Mrs. DForest went back upstairs. They waited until the hallway light turned off before looking at each other then at Peter's hand.

It definitely wasn't going to go unnoticed.

Peter clenched his jaw as Luke finished cleaning his hand with the alcohol and tried his best to wrap it as tightly as he could. With luck, the wound will stop bleeding by morning and Peter can hide the cut from his mother more easily.

Twenty minutes later, Peter and Luke were sprawled across the couch with Ricky in the chair, fast asleep.

..

Peter and the others woke up to find that they had managed to not get blood on the floor or couch last night and were even more relieved when they unwrapped the bandage that was around Peter's hand and saw that it had, in fact, stopped bleeding. Peter went to the bathroom and, carefully, washed off the dried blood before the three of them walked into the kitchen where Mrs. DeForest was busy making breakfast: Eggs, bacon, and rolls.

"You boys were up late last night. What were you doing?"

She wasn't looking at them as she cleaned the pans in the sink, but the three boys looked at each other before Peter spoke. "We… couldn't sleep. So we talked all night."

He heard his mother sigh before turning around and looking at them. "It's not healthy to stay up that late."

"Yes, mother."

The other two boys looked at each other and started snickering at Peter who glanced at them and glared. Mrs. DeForest silenced them by slamming her hand on the table.

"That goes for you boys, too." She glared at them until they nodded and then she smiled. "Good. Now eat. We're meeting your parents at the church." She pointed to Ricky and Luke before starting to leave the room.

"Mom, aren't you going to eat?"

She stopped and looked back. "I already did. Unlike you boys, I actually wake up early enough to enjoy the sunrises." She smiled. "You should do the same. They really are beautiful," she was heard saying as she walked into the living room to tidy up the house before the church service started.

When the boys had finished eating, they cleaned the dishes and put them on the rack to dry. They then went and changed into their church clothes: slacks, a dress shirt, and polished shoes. Normally they would wear a tie, but the three of them refused to, saying that it was pointless to get so dressed up for only an hour once a week. The boys' parents had long since let it slide.

They arrived at the church at 8:50AM and the three boys sat together, with their families sitting together in the pew behind them. They sat through the sermon bored as hell until, near the end, the pastor started talking about what happened with the farm. The boys perked up.

"Sometime in the middle of the night, our town's farm was vandalized. The fences were cut and some of the posts were sawed off. We had to place some of the animals into the same pen so they wouldn't escape. Does anybody have any information about who might have done it?"

Nobody spoke as people started looking around; looking upset and pissed off that anyone would do this. The farm was the pride of the town.

The boys looked between each other and then around the room as to not look suspicious.

"We'll catch whoever did this. One of the posts had blood on it, so one of the people involved will have a cut somewhere on their body."

Peter unconsciously, yet subtly, placed his hand over his injured hand.

The pastor ended the service and dismissed everybody. Most of them stayed behind to chat with each other or the pastor, but Peter, Ricky, and Luke managed to avoid this by getting permission to leave. Just as they reached the door, they heard a loud gasp.

"You! It was _you!_"

The boys turned around to see an elderly woman pointing accusingly at Peter, who had carelessly let his fist unfold and reveal the cut on his palm. Everyone in the room was looking at them now and their parents looked very, _very_ upset.

Peter looked at his friend and then looked around the room.

"Shit."

* * *

Thanks for reading! =D. The first couple of chapters might be slow, but I promise it'll get more exciting =)


	2. Chapter Two: Changeling

**Ante Meridiem**

_By Dr. Shelly McCoy_

Genre: Romance, Drama

Characters: Peter and Charlotte

Rating: T - M towards the end

Author's Note: Thank you guys for reading! I never realized how much I would enjoy writing.

* * *

Chapter Two – Changeling

..

"We should have kept the bandage on."

"That would have looked more suspicious."

"This is torture."

"Speak for yourself. The fucking cut split open."

"That's what you get for being care—"

"Hey! Be quite and continue working!"

Peter, Ricky, and Luke stopped talking and went back to work.

..

"_Why would you do such a thing?"_

"_We need those animals!"  
_

"_They're always causing trouble."_

"_They'll be the death of this town!"_

_The boys looked around at the people chastising them, unsure of what to say in the sudden uproar. They tried to convince everyone that they were being falsely accused and that Peter had fallen on a piece of glass, but the pastor held up the saws and shears that the boys had carelessly forgot to grab before running. Luke's father instantly recognized them as his and said that they were missing from his shed this morning._

"_They should be punished!"_

"_They'll never change."_

_The words of the townspeople cut into the three boys harder than expected. It was just a stupid prank._

_Ricky took a step forward._

"_Look, we never meant to hurt the animals! We just thought it'd be funny to see them roaming around the town."_

"_Do you know how dangerous that could be? What would happen if a child went up to one of the animals? There's a reason only a few people can be around them."_

"_Well maybe if you didn't keep them locked up the way they are and away from everyone, then they wouldn't _be_ dangerous!"_

"_Enough, Ricky!" Ricky's mother's voice was enough to shut him up and take that step back._

_The pastor sighed and thought for a moment before speaking again.  
_

"_These boys need to learn responsibility, and they _will _learn it. This afternoon, they will come back to the church and fix the posts and fencing they damaged. Tomorrow, they'll start other labour jobs around town." He looked at the boys then. "See you tonight."_

_Everybody, save for Peter, Luke, and Ricky, all nodded and mumbled agreements, most saying how they deserved it._

_And with that, the pastor, and everyone else, went back to their conversations._

_The boys looked at each other, silent._

..

So there they were, in the late afternoon, in the back of the church at the fences. Luke and Ricky were busy digging a hole for a new post as Peter untangled a coil of barbed wire, making sure to avoid the barbs as much as possible with little success.

Peter, a 21-year-old with a well-toned body, might have been a better choice to help with the posts seeing as they weren't as light in weight as they looked. However, the injury to his hand left him in charge of the object that injured him. Ricky, 25, was slightly taller than Peter, but was nowhere near as muscular. That didn't mean he wasn't strong. In fact, people often underestimated his strength. He lifted the post and stuck it into the hole that Luke had dug. Luke was 18 and the smallest in the group, having absolutely no upper-body strength and was scrawny to say the least. But the boy could outrun both Peter and Ricky on any given day. He could think of a solution to any problem that stood in his way. The three were perfect for one another in the sense that they balanced the others out. Peter was the strongest, Ricky was the 'leader,' and Luke was the fastest.

As they worked, the pastor and the head of the farm sat on the deck of the church and watched them, making sure they actually did the work and did it correctly. Due to the boy's unwillingness to the job and Peter's injury, the job took a few hours longer than expected.

By the time they had finished, it was around 9:30 at night and pitch black out. The glow of the moon was the only thing helping the boys to see.

"There. Finished." Riley stood and whipped the sweat from his face. Those posts really are heavy.

The pastor and the other guy stood and inspected their work, nodding in approval when the inspection was done.

"I'm honestly surprised, boys. You did a great job."

"Yeah, thanks." Luke said sarcastically.

The pastor glared slightly at Luke but shrugged it off. "Fine. Be here at 8 in the morning for your next task."

"What?!" The boys said together. "8 in the morning? Are you fucking serious?" Riley added.

Now the pastor was really glaring and the other guy shook his head at the boy's choice of words.

"Watch your mouth kid or I'll make sure you work for the rest of your—"

A low growl from inside the cow pen cut him off. Everyone looked up to see three silhouetted figures standing side-by-side. Even in the dim light they could all see that they were humans. And females. And beautiful.

Inhumanely beautiful. All five men could not look away.

The female in the middle walked closer to them, reaching the barbed wire fence. She reached out and grabbed the wire with one hand before yanking on it, easily snapping it and tossing the wire aside. The boys stood there, frozen in shock at how easily the girl had broken the wire and managed to not cut herself.

The girl only smirked.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here, sisters."

The men gasped in surprise when they noticed that the other two girls were on either side of them, smirking as well.

"Mmm, I like this one Maria." The tall blonde to the men's left reached out and stroked Ricky's arm. He shivered, staring at her.

"Fine." The brunette in the middle kept her eyes on Peter. The way she was looking at him made it seem like she was trying to decide something. Peter noticed and she simply smiled at him.

The other blonde girl, who was shorter than the other two, looked at Peter hungerly.

"Him. I smelled him first!" She glared at Peter and it was only then that he noticed her dark eyes. The others didn't seem to notice.

"Nettie, wait," she tilted her head, studying Peter. "I want to keep him."

The girls huffed, but it sounded like a low growl, and stepped back, eyeing the pastor and the other man. "Fine. I'll take these."

Peter was quickly starting to become afraid. There was something about these girls that didn't seem right. The one referred to as 'Nettie' had said that she smelled him first. What did that mean? And how did the one named 'Maria' break the barbed wire so easily? It was like she simply tugged on a piece of string.

He looked around at his friends and noticed that they didn't seem afraid, but… entranced.

He didn't like where this was going.

"L-Look, I don't know what you ladies want—" He had put up his hands and started backing away, but Maria was suddenly right in front of him. There was no way she could have gotten that close to him that fast. She was at least ten feet away and she was standing inches from him in a blink of an eye. She grabbed Peter's injured hand and held it tight enough for him to wince.

She brought his hand close to her face and took a longing breath, moaning softly when she exhaled.

"Delicious."

Nettie and the other blonde were starting to stalk closer to the other four men, who seemed to be rooted to the ground with no intentions to move.

"There are five of us and… only three of you. Don't try anything…"

"Oh sweetie," Maria smiled sweetly at Peter, "I promise you won't feel a thing."

"I won't…" Peter froze, feeling pure fear starting to boil inside of him from somewhere in his body.

He tried to move, but Maria's grip on his hand kept him where he was. She continued to smile.

"What's your name?"

He didn't respond.

"Oh, come on." She reached up with her other hand and gently stroked her cheek. "What's your name?"

He hesitated. "P-Peter."

"Well Peter. I really hope you survive."

Maria leaned closer to Peter, who was unable to move any part of his body, and bit into his neck.

The pain was so excruciating it drowned out the screams from the four men, who had tried and failed to run away from the two strange women.

Peter desperately tried to push Maria away, who had begun to suck on his neck. Peter felt his stomach churn as he felt his blood being sucked from his neck. Despite his personal beliefs, he punched and shoved at Maria, crying out pleas for her to stop. He didn't even notice that when he came in contact with her flesh, Maria's skin felt hard and unnaturally cold.

The screams from the other men didn't seem as loud before which momentarily distracted Peter. He managed to open his eyes long enough to see Luke sprawled on the ground, his clothes covered in blood. He looked at Luke's neck and screamed when he saw half of it had been ripped off, leaving a gaping hole in the boy's body.

He couldn't see Ricky, but he could faintly hear him screaming. He started to look for the pastor and the other man, but Maria had gripped his wrist too hard and he heard a sickening crunch. Peter shut his eyes and screamed in pain.

It became too much. Peter started crying uncontrollably and begged Maria to stop.

After what seemed like hours, she finally did.

Peter collapsed on the ground and struggled to get up, but was too weak to do so. So he laid there, crying as he stared up at his attacker.

She simply smiled and flashed a bloody grin.

His vision started to blur as he slowly started slipping into unconsciousness. Something unsettling snapped Peter back into consciousness. His body started feeling different.

The pain was changing

It was coming from somewhere in his chest, but he didn't remember Maria attacking him anywhere near his chest. The new pain was overpowering the pain in his wrist and his neck.

He didn't have time to wonder what was happening before he let out an ear-splitting scream.

It burned.

His body was burning.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Believe me when I say I was cringing while writing this...


	3. Chapter Three: Adapt

**Ante Meridiem**

_By Dr. Shelly McCoy_

Genre: Romance, Drama,

Characters: Peter and Charlotte

Rating: T – M

* * *

Chapter Three – Adapt

..

The pain was excruciating. It felt like his entire body was set on fire and left to burn for eternity. His constant thrashing and screaming did nothing to help. Nothing he thought distracted him. He didn't even feel the cool hands that carried him away. For three days, he didn't feel anything but the burning.

Those three days felt like years, but it was finally ending.

The burning started to fade from his feet and hands and, slowly, the rest of his body began to cool down. He could feel his heart beating unnaturally fast and felt as though it would jump through his chest. He didn't care; the pain was going away. That's all that mattered.

After about an hour, he could move his fingers, and then his hands. It felt weird moving them, like he was twitching instead of slowly moving his hands as he was intending. Suddenly, he started convulsing violently as the burning focused in the middle of his chest.

Then it stopped.

Peter slowly opened his eyes and instantly felt a new pain in his throat, like someone had shoved a white-hot iron rod down it. He groaned, sat up, and put his head in his hands which made him freeze. His skin felt smooth. Really smooth. Actually, his entire body felt different, but he couldn't figure out why. He wasn't tired, but just a little sore. The only thing that hurt was his neck. It stung. After a few seconds he snapped his head up.

His neck.

Those girls.

Peter quickly looked around and noticed that he was in the middle of the woods. Where he was exactly, he didn't know. He could hear people muttering to themselves, but didn't see anybody near him when he looked around. What he _did_ see, however, was amazing.

Everything was so _clear._

Peter slowly stood up as he looked around the forest. He could see every pine needle, every groove in the trunks, every detail that a tree had. He saw movement on a tree a few meters away and was surprised when he saw a beetle crawling up the trunk. He could see a _beetle_ on a tree meters away perfectly.

_What the hell?_

He heard the muttering again and, despite his better judgment, decided to investigate. Hopefully he could find somebody that could explain what happened to him. Peter crept closer, only to freeze again when he felt himself moving faster than he intended. He moved to another tree, trying to slow down and failing. He was starting to freak out when he heard a voice.

"Ah, you survived. Wonderful."

Peter whipped around faster than he thought possible and was face to face with _her_.

"What the hell did you do to me?"

"Now that's no way to speak to a lady. Come, you must be thirsty."

Thirsty? The only thing he felt was the burning in his throat. He nodded, willing to do anything to sooth the pain. Maria smiled.

"Excellent. This way."

She walked towards where the voices were coming from and Peter followed willingly, yet cautiously. As he walked he noted the different smells and it amazed him that he could detect each individual scent. The pine trees, the dirt, various flowers. He could even smell rain, yet there were only a few dark clouds in the sky.

Sooner than expected, Maria and Peter reached a clearing and he stopped at the edge while she walked towards two other females on the left. He recognized them immediately: Nettie and the blonde girl. Peter could hear them talking, regardless that he was out of hearing range, or so he thought, and heard Maria call the blonde 'Lucy.' There was another person with the: a man. He was tall with honey-blonde hair, but Peter didn't catch his name.

As he looked around at the other people, Peter noticed something strange. Everyone was different, yet the same. Each had a different hair colour and different hair styles and were different heights, but their skin was pale. Almost sickly pale. And their eyes were dark; black. Unnatural. Everyone looked like they were anxious for something. They were jumpy in a strange, graceful way, looked nervous, and seemed excited all at the same time. Peter didn't know why.

Then again, he had only just gotten there.

"No way… Peter?!"

Peter looked up after hearing the voice and was frozen in his spot when he saw the source.

"But… no. That's impossible."

The scrawny Luke Simmons ran up and hugged Peter. Peter couldn't move, both from shock and the fact that Luke's grip was extremely tight. It didn't hurt him, but he could feel the pressure. If he had to compare, Peter would describe it like being inside of a garbage compressor.

"Luke… how the hell did you survive?! You were…"

Luke let go. "Those girls," he pointed to Maria, Nettie, and Lucy. "They did something to us."

"Yeah, I'll say." Peter looked at himself again and then shook his head. "What exactly did they do? And where's Ricky?"

"I don't know, but look what I can do!" Luke walked around Peter and stood by a large tree. He looked at Peter, excited, before he placed a hand on the trunk and pushed.

The Oak tree snapped at its base and fell over, knocking over another tree with a deafening crack.

"Holy…"

"Hey! Knock it off! If you don't focus then you'll die. Now listen up…"

Maria's vice rang across the field and everybody, including Peter, calmed down instantly. Strange. He wasn't even worked up.

"I bet you're all wondering what's going on. What happened to you? The simple fact is that I changed you and you're going to help me get back what was wrongfully taken from me. Deny me and you'll be punished. Obey me and you'll be rewarded." Maria glanced at the two girls and smirked before looking back at the crowd. "There are more like us who want the same thing and we have to stop them. As you can see, you have strengths you never had before. You can run faster than ever imagined. And you're more beautiful than any human ever could be. Some of you may even have special powers. That will be your advantage."

The others looked around, murmuring amongst themselves. Maria waited until they quieted down again before continuing.

"If you're useful then we'll keep you, but you have to prove yourselves to us. Y'all should already know what you are. If not, then take a nice, long, deep breath and find out the easy way."

Maria smirked again as the group took their breaths, even Peter. There was a moment when nobody moved or made a sound, and then 12 heads snapped in the same direction before running at God-like speed in on direction. Maria, the two other girls, and the other man followed closely.

..

The group ran until they got to the edge of the woods and kept going until they were in the streets of what looked like a small city. It was dark thanks to the clouds that now covered the sun completely, but not silent as businessmen and couples walked the plazas. The group was swift and quick as they snuck up on the unsuspecting people.

Peter couldn't help what he was doing; he was drawn in by the smell. The delicious, warm scent. It was nothing like anything Peter's ever smelled before and he couldn't pinpoint a scent. Actually, there were too many different scents to pinpoint just one. He smelled _everything_: lavender, honey, leather, metal, apples… it was everywhere.

There was one scent, however, that caught his attention. It was stronger than the others. It was a mixture of metal and pickles. It was an odd mixture, but Peter found it irresistible.

It belonged to a man who was casually dressed and sitting, alone, at the bus stop waiting for the last bus for the night. He was reading the paper. Peter was about a block away, but he could read the text. The man was reading an article about the war. That seemed to be the topic for the last couple years and Peter wasn't sure if it was ever going to end. That didn't matter now as he crept closer, hiding in the alleys across the street. He didn't want the man to see him and damn him if he was going to get caught.

Peter knew what he was about to do and it didn't bother him one bit. He had to taste that scent; to know if it tasted just as amazing as it smelled. The man looked up only when Peter was standing right in front of him, smiling.

"Can I help you young man?"

Peter's smile widened. He was consumed with hunger as he took that final breath. "Oh, I believe you can."

The man's screams were drowned out by the others around him.

As quickly as the group arrived, they were gone, leaving a mess of bloodless bodies behind.

* * *

Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it. School's getting in the way but I'll try to update sooner =)


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